A weekend without plans

I finally got something I have been wanting for a long time- a nice peaceful relaxing weekend in Austin. After the rush of the holidays and traveling almost every weekend, it was so nice to just stay home and relax. We are finally unpacked and settled in, without anything urgent we needed to do. This past weekend we were able to do as little or as much as we wanted to. So what did we end up doing?

Friday night was date night. Hayden and I went to see The King's Speech followed by some Firebowl Cafe. This was by far the most artsy film we have seen this year. It also broke our streak of watching truly horrible movies at the theater. We never pick out a good movie, except for this one. However, it was strange to watch the movie and keep seeing Bellatrix Lestrange (for Harry Potter fans), Captain Barbossa (Pirates of the Caribbean), and Mr. Darcy (Pride and Prejudice) all in a movie about British royalty. Okay, Colin Firth in a British movie is a given.

Saturday morning we headed out to the Turkey Creek Nature Trail. We tried to test out the trail a few weeks ago, but it was too crowded and we couldn't find a parking spot. We finally had success Saturday and went on our 2.75 mile trek. The air was cool, the morning crisp, and the mud stuck to our shoes. For a while it felt like my shoes weighed 10-lbs. each, but we still had fun.

Cooking Sunday

I think I'm turning into a food blogger and this blog seems to be leaning that way. Cooking together is one of the things we missed doing the most, and we have really enjoyed sharing that time. So here are a few highlights from this past weekend (food-wise):

Morgan assembling cabbage rolls stuffed with ground beef and rice.

Steam rising dramatically as sauce is poured on the cabbage rolls.

Morgan using the stand mixer (thanks guys!) to create a delicious baked good...
Gingerbread Cake with Spiced Cream-Cheese Frosting!

The Honey-Do List

Poor Hayden! I'm really starting to like this whole house husband thing. It's so nice to come home from work and not have a million things to do at home. I have a confession...I'm starting to get spoiled. I'm trying not to leave too many things for Hayden to do during the day, but its tempting to leave the load of laundry out and to-do list on the counter. It's also really nice to come home, eat dinner, and hang out (aka watch tv and play mario kart) with my husband until its time to hit the hay. We are finally getting to do all of those "normal" things. Now just to finally get everything put away in our place. Uh-oh that sounds like one more thing that can be added to my list. Hayden better stop me before I get out of control.

Come and Get It!

One of the benefits of finally living together (and having a little extra time at home) has been being able to cook for each other. Morgan received a cookbook with over 1,000 gluten-free recipes for Christmas so we have been trying a lot of those out. Here are a couple more pictures of the meals Morgan has had the pleasure of coming home to over the last week :)

Last Wednesday (and leftovers on Thursday), we had pan-seared filet mignon with caramelized onions, crispy baked smashed potatoes and a side salad.

We went down to Yoakum and Victoria this past weekend (should be covered in another blog soon) so we came back with a ton of leftovers from my parents and some fresh vegetables from the Kallus' garden. I don't have a lot of experience cooking vegetables so it took a little bit of online hunting, but I found a pretty good recipe for some of the cauliflower. The following picture is Italian-spiced roasted pork loin and cauliflower sauce with gluten-free penne pasta. I put a few variations on the pasta recipe I found, like adding green onions and a little marinara, but it turned out really well.

House Husband, Day One

So today was my first day at home without a job (hopefully there are very few of them). I think I did pretty well. I had a job application in before 9 AM, got in a workout, and put more stuff away in the apartment. Most impressively, at least in my opinion, was that I had a dinner of chicken breast, roasted potatoes and asparagus ready when Morgan made it home from work (picture of meal added below).

A few observations from my day:
- The Science Channel is pretty cool, and daytime tv would be even more awful without it
- Moving a kayak by yourself is kind of tough, especially when you're trying to put it in an area where it will not fit
- There are a lot of theories surrounding the Star of Bethlehem and what it was (thanks Science Channel program)
- HEB now has ingredients packaged together to make soup for those who still want to cook but not really shop

Finally Home

We've been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. After a busy week of packing up and wrapping up things in College Station, Hayden loaded up his truck and officially moved to Austin. We no longer have two addresses!

We had a pretty low key weekend: watched Texas A&M lose the Cotton Bowl (poor Hayden), went to Mount Bonnell (pictures below), had lunch with the Johnson family, unpacked lots of boxes and settled into our place.

Morgan with Lake Austin in the background.

Hayden contemplating the meaning of life

The happy couple, together at last!

Austin Skyline, from the Top of Mount Bonnell

All in all, it was a pretty great weekend and we're looking forward to many more.